We've been on a quest to determine which NHL team has the best and worst logos.
Now we're moving onto goalies! We're pitting mask against mask
with the goal of determining the best. And you can vote!
Also check out: Tournament of Hockey Logos

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

I get emails on a daily basis with excellent ideas on ways to further this blog. Plus every so often, some of my own ideas spring up on me. And there are a handful of them that I'd like to move forward with in the future. So I'm using this post to publicly keep track of what's under development for NHLToL as well as the new ToHL.

NHL Tournament of Logos

Upcoming Logo TournamentsThe next three logo touranments I have planned are Vintage Logos, Secondary Logos and Third Jersey Logos. Right now, you guys are voting on what the next one will be. And at the time of this writing, Vintage has a slight edge over Third Jersey. So that's the more immediate future. Each of these tournaments will last roughly four to five weeks.

On days off from regular polls, while we wait for the next challenger to move ahead, we'll do bonus polls just like in the Championship Tournament. We've been doing Logo History polls which take feature only the primary logos in a team's past against its current mark. During the next tournament, my plan is to have logos from relocated teams square off. For example, Coyotes versus Jets, Avalanche versus Nordiques and Hurricanes versus Whalers. The plan is to get through as many as possible.

In the future, we can also hold votes on primary versus secondary as well. My other thought is that if we ever run out of ideas of things to vote on (not likely) we could just pick a year and take all the logos that were used in that season and hold a year-specific logo tournament.

Rbk EDGE UniformsAs you know, the new Rbk EDGE uniforms have been a big point of interest for me on this blog. I'm in the middle of writing a series of reviews for all of the new sweaters. When that is complete, we'll tally up the final votes and see how the jerseys rank with each other. I'm also putting together a bunch of easy-access information on the new jerseys which I'll tell you more about soon.

Another interesting idea would be a Uniform Tournament. You all would be able to vote on the best of the new Rbk EDGE uniforms. And by the same token, we could also do a throwback tournament where you vote on the best of the old uniforms as well.

Center Ice Logos added 10/3Just remembered another idea I'd been thinking about. And I'd like to do this one soon depending on what you guys think. We can hold a Tournament of Center Ice Logos. In every arena across the league, the center ice logo is portrayed just a little bit different. We can find out who has the best one.

Goalie Mask VotingI know it's called this NHL Tournament of Logos, but I think this site is about more than logos. One thing that a lot of people have suggested is voting on various goalie masks from around the league. Some of the designs are very creative and are worth taking a good look at, if you ask me. I'm collecting pictures at the moment, but some time before this hockey season is over, I would very much like to do a Goalie Mask Tournament.

Another great suggestion I've gotten is doing a Goalie Mask Concept Gallery where you all could design masks and submit them. Let me know if that's something you're interested in and perhaps I'll move forward with it. (10/11)

NHLToL Web DomainOne small thing that I'm considering is getting the blog it's own domain such as nhltol.com or something of the like. You'd still be able to access it at nhllogos.blogspot.com, but what would you guys think of that? And what address should I try to get? As a side note, if I did that, I'd ask for donations as I've yet to put a single penny into making this site. No sense in starting anytime soon, right? Of course, it would be up to the readers.

Tournament of Hockey Logos

AHL or ECHL? Or AHL vs ECHL?The two biggest and most popular minor leagues are arguably the AHL and ECHL. Therefore, they'll be up first. At the moment, I'm holding a poll over there for folks to decided which one will be first. The AHL is running away with it after over 1,000 votes. You still have two weeks to vote, however.

Plus, once both tournaments have ended, we'll have a poll between the best AHL and best ECHL logo. We could even set up an entire bracket of individual match-ups of AHL versus ECHL logos. But first, I'd want to get to some of the other minor leagues.

Other Leagues Under ConsiderationThere are many minor and junior leagues out there, some with great team logos. I'd like to cover as many as possible. Among those I'm considering:CHL - Central Hockey LeagueOHL - Ontario Hockey LeagueQMJHL - Quebec Major Junior Hockey LeagueWHL - Western Hockey LeagueBCHL - British Columbia Hockey LeagueEIHL - Elite Ice Hockey LeagueUSHL - United States Hockey LeagueNAHL - North American Hockey LeagueIHL - International Hockey League (current IHL and defunct IHL)

And there's no reason why we can't do any other defunct leagues or teams as well. If there is anything else not on this list that you think should be considered, please let me know.

Concept Logo TournamentOne of the things we do a lot here is concept art. Everyday, I get new emails with concept art designed by readers. And every day I try to post a few items. Well one thought for a competition is to do a Concept Logo Tournament. We'll take the best concept logos from every team and see which one comes out on top.

Rec League TournamentsWe could even collect logo submissions from recreational leagues and high school teams. That would make for an interesting tournament because the majority of the voters would have no emotional connection to the teams and could vote free of fan bias.

College Uniform VotingA great idea that was suggested is a College Hockey Uniform Tournament. We could have votes on logos, but a lot of them are very institutional and might not stand up to certain kinds of competition. Still, the uniforms might be fair game.

I know all that up there is a lot to consider, but it just means that these two sites have potentially big futures ahead of them. And as long as you guys keep coming back to vote, I'll keep thinking up polls to let you vote on.

The biggest thing I need to mention in this post is that I want your input! I'm making this site for you guys so if there's something you want to see that I haven't posted here, please drop me a line. I'm open to doing all sorts of things but I can't think of everything myself. So review each category above and if you see something you think you can improve upon or if there's something I haven't covered, feel free to contribute.

I don't think a college hockey tourney would work. Most teams use word marks, it'd be like voting for your favorite letter of the alphabet. Plus I bet the Canadians who vistit this blog don't care about US college hockey.